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He also wrote an account of a journey to Kidto in 1802, which was published long after his death. Bakin’s writings have some obvious merits. They prove, sometimes only too conclusively, that he was a man of great learning, intimately acquainted with the history, religion, literature, and folk-lore both of China and Japan. His style is usually flowing, perspicuous, and elegant, and he possesses a command of the re- sources of his own tongue unique among his contem- poraries. His language is a happy medium between the purism of such writers as Motoéri and the semi-Chinese jargon of the later Kangakusha. It is honourable to him that at a time when pornography was the rule rather than the exception with writers of fiction, his writings are free from all indecency of language, and are invariably moral in their tendency. They alone were excluded from the sweeping prohibitive measure directed against light literature by the Shogun’s Government in 1842. Perhaps the quality which most strikes European readers of Bakin’s novels is his prodigious fertility of in- vention. ‘ The number and variety of surprising incidents with which they are crowded can have few parallels. On the other hand, his faults are as glaring as his merits are conspicuous. For the profusion of incidents with which he crowds his pages, he has recourse to his memory as 362 JAPANESE LITERATURE well as to his invention, and, what is worse, he constantly overleaps the bounds of possibility to an extent which tries the patience of the most indulgent reader. The deus ex machind, in the shape of a ghost, demon, or supernaturally gifted animal, is in far too frequent re- quisition. His moral ideals are of the common con- ventional type of his day and country, the product of the teachings of China grafted ona Japanese stock. His power of delineating character is extremely limited, and _ reminds us very much of the portrait-painting of Japanese pictorial art. He has little or no humour, and his wit is mainly of the verbal kind. The sentiment of love is dealt with by him in a way which is to us very unsatisfactory. While he can describe the mischief produced by un- lawful passion, and wifely fidelity and devotion are his frequent themes, such things as the gradual growth of the sentiment in man or woman, the ennobling influence of a pure love, and all the more delicate shades of feeling are wholly neglected by him. The pathos which native admirers find in his works fails to move his European readers, although they are not insensible to the same quality in other Japanese authors. In short, human nature as depicted by Bakin is far too sophisticated to appeal to our sympathies. Heshows us men and women as they might be if constructed on principles derived from the Chinese sages and their Japanese expositors, and goes for his material to books rather than to real life. It is characteristic of him, that unlike many of the dramatists and novelists of his time, he avoids the common speech for his dialogue, and confines himself entirely to the more stilted literary language. Bakin’s style, which is his strong point, is occasionally disfigured by lapses into fine writing adorned with pivot- BAKIN 363 words* and other artifices of Japanese rhetoric irritating to all plain-minded people. Nor can he always resist the temptation of bestowing on his readers tedious displays of his erudition, or of introducing foreign or obsolete words not understanded of the people. It may be a question whether the rhythmical character of much that Bakin has written isa merit or a defect. It results from the more or less regular alternation of five and seven syllable phrases so often referred to, and pro- duces much the same effect as the blank verse to which some English novelists are addicted. Bakin borrowed it from the popular dramatists of the preceding century ; but while it is obviously in its proper place on the stage, where the words are chanted to a musical accompani- ment, it seems a more doubtful kind of ornament in an ordinary romance. Japanese critics have an unqualified admiration for this feature of Bakin’s works, and suggest that it entitles the Hakkenden to be classed among epic poems. 1 The more frivolous of my readers will perhaps pardon the following attempt to give an example of the sort of thing which we might have if the pivot style were adopted in English. It illustrates the mode in which Japanese novelists and dramatists frequently slur over the transition from one scene to another by a use of this device ; something on the same principle as their artists introduce a golden mist between different parts of the landscape in order to disguise defects of perspective. ‘<The sun went down, and the welcome, the thrice-wished for, the most fair, the best beloved oo sought a well-earned repose. On the morrow he rose from his couch at OW ed his armour and sallied forth in quest of fresh adventuresome as was his bold spirit, his courage was now to be put toa testy old ren of meat as an egg-shaped domes, slender minarets, and square- built towers rose in picturesque confusion from the summit of a hill where dwelt,” &c., &c, 364 JAPANESE LITERATURE — It may be thought that the above is too low an esti- mate of a writer whose enormous popularity with all classes of his own countrymen is unquestionable. I therefore append the judgment of the authors of the only native History of Japanese Literature. It will en- able the reader to correct any injustice which may have been done by the barbarous Western critic. “ Bakin was a man of immense erudition. His flow of ideas was profuse. When he took up his pen, a thousand words were quickly formed, long chapters fell from his hand. He, nevertheless, from time to time, used deep thought and mature reflection, giving profound atten- tion to plot and construction. His pen darted hither and thither, following his thoughts wherever they went, © accompanying his sentiments wherever they turned them- selves. In describing men and events, his style changed with the change of subject. Many there have been in ancient and modern times who gave their attention to style, each of whom has his own particular merits.. Some excel in depicting scenes of grief and affliction, some of gladness and jollity, while others possess unrivalled gifts of indignant or satirical language. But how many are there who, like Bakin, can build on so vast a scale, and include within their scope the billows of mankind with all their varied capacities and qualities? How many possess the styles fitted for this purpose wherein are seen ever and anon magical things which far tran- scend our comprehension ? In short, Bakin comprises in himself the best points of many men. We see in him numerous resemblances to Shakespeare. It is not only women and children, tradespeople and peasants, who admire him. Even educated gentlemen are fre- quently moved to tears or laughter, or made to gnash TANEHIKO 365 their teeth and strain their arms [with rage] by his writings.” That there is some truth in this I am not con- cerned to deny. I nevertheless venture the prediction that when the Japanese people have more completely shaken off, as they are doing every year, the Chinese influences which have moulded their character and formed their tastes for centuries, Bakin’s heroes and heroines will appear to them as grotesque and unreal as they do to us. His works will then be relegated to the same limbo which contains the romances of chivalry so dear to Europe before Cervantes, and be regarded merely as a document of a passing phase of the national development. The best known of Bakin’s contemporaries is RIUTEI TANEHIKO (1783-1842), a Samurai of the Tokugawa house, from which he received an annual allowance of two hundred bales of rice. Like Kidden, he was in early life an artist. He also practised Haikai writing with some degree of success. As a writer of fiction he is best known for his romantic novels; but he also pub- lished stories in dramatic form (shdhonjzdate), meant only for reading, and not for the stage. Another kind of novel, of which he wrote a few volumes, was the xznjobon or “sentiment book,” which will be noticed presently. He was also the author of several works which are of a useful character, but have no pretensions to be regarded as literature. Among his novels may be mentioned the Awa no Naruto (1807), the Asamagatake Omokage Zésht (1808), and its continuation the Shwaku Monogatari (1812). The plot of the last two works is taken from an old play, and the scene is in the fourteenth century. 366 JAPANESE LITERATURE Tanehiko’s principal work, the Jnaka Genji, “A Rustic Genji” (in ninety volumes), is an imitation of the Genji Monogatari, the well-known romance of the Heian period. It was a great success, and other authors, by choosing titles which included the word Genji, endeavoured to persuade the public that their works were of a similar character. In 1842° the Shdgun’s Government took measures to suppress publications of an immoral tend- ency. The /waka Genji was considered objectionable on this score, and Tanehiko received a private intimation that he had better give up writing novels. He was only too glad to escape so cheaply, as any official condemna- tion would have entailed the loss of his allowance from the Government. I have not had access to this work. It is much ad- mired by native critics for its style and sentiment; and the illustrations, to which Tanehiko attached great im- portance, set an example to which was due a marked improvement in Japanese wood-engraving.